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BELF and the Rise of Linguacultural Competence
People often assume that Business English is mostly about mastering the right vocabulary lists or polishing email etiquette. But a recent study reminds us how much of real workplace communication depends on something far less tangible: the ability to navigate linguacultural differences in fast‑moving, transnational contexts. The study in question, Cultivating Linguacultural Competence in Business…
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University English: It’s Academic
Many of us – myself included – have never had the chance to teach academic English in a university setting. We might assume that it’s all about covering academic conventions & getting students to write & speak in more ‘correct’ ways. A recent open-access study suggests something more practical — most successful graduate-level ELT is…
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A Nod to Gesture: The Importance of Reading Between the Lines
We all know, intuitively, that we are constantly reading body language. We react to a raised eyebrow, a head tilt or a small hand movement without even noticing we’re doing it. What we know much less about is just how important those signals really are for understanding meaning in language, especially when the words themselves…
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A War of Attrition: Use it or Lose it
We spend so much time worrying about how our students will acquire language, we might find ourselves forgetting to consider what they might lose. But the reality of language attrition—the forgetting of learnt material—is a silent force in our classrooms. A recent study by researchers at Wuhan University of Technology decided to look into the…
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Is AI OK for EI?
I recently came across a study from Yıldız Technical University (Istanbul) that got me wondering how much of our emotional world is shaped by the tools we use on a daily basis. We talk a lot about how AI supports language learning, but far less about how it might be shaping the emotional lives of…
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How Slang Evolves in the Online Age
Online slang is frequently framed as a breakdown in “proper” language rather than as a predictable form of language change. But viewed through a sociolinguistic lens, online slang looks less like chaos & more like a familiar pattern playing out at digital speed. The study A 2024 study by Ye Zhipeng (Hohai University, China), published…
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